Simeon Rabban Ata
Simeon Rabban Ata, also Simeon Rabban-ata and sometimes Simeo Rabban Ara, was a high representative of Syriac Christianity in the 13th century.[1] Among other things, he was tasked by the Mongols, such as Khans Ogodei and Guyuk, to handle Christian matters.[2] He was in charge of establishing Christian churches in the Mongol realm, and had contact with some of the Christian envoys and missionaries that passed through the area.[3] He was known to have met with André de Longjumeau and Ascelin in Tabriz in 1245, as they were on their own missions to the Mongols.[4]
He himself visited the Mongol court in 1235-1240,[5] and was an intermediary between Eastern and Western Christianity, corresponding with the Pope, such as when he transmitted a profession of faith by the Jacobite patriarch Ignatius II in 1247, and gave to André de Longjumeau a letter in which the primacy of Rome was being recognized.[6]
Notes
References
- Jackson, Peter, The Mongols and the West, ISBN 0-582-36896-0
- Roux, Jean-Paul, Les explorateurs au Moyen-Age, Fayard, 1985, ISBN 2-01-279339-8
- Roux, Jean-Paul, Histoire de l'Empire Mongol, Fayard, 1993, ISBN 2-213-03164-9
- Richard, Jean, Histoire des Croisades, Fayard, ISBN 2-213-59787-1